On 22nd August 1642 King Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham.
A signal to his supporters to rally to his defence, this marked the start of the English Civil War
between King and Parliament.
The conflict would last six years and end with the execution of the King on 30th January 1649,
having been declared a ‘tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy
to the good people of the nation.’
What had caused the Civil War?
Between 1629 and 1640 Charles ruled England without a Parliament. He had dismissed his
MPs in 1629 after they presented him with the Petition of Right. Drawing on Magna Carta
of 1215, the Petition protested against the king’s raising of taxes not approved by
parliament and his imprisonment of those who refused to pay.
Charles felt he was entitled to do this because he believed in the Divine Right of Kings,
that his authority to rule came directly from God and that to God alone he was accountable.
This 11 year period is known as the Personal Rule, during which Charles implemented policies
without having to answer to anyone.
Among these policies were controversial religious reforms. On the advice of his Archbishop of Canterbury,
William Laud, churches were ordered to replace altars, recover their decorated
vestments, and parishioners were forced to kneel to receive the sacrament. To Protestants,
Laud’s plan seemed very much like a return to Catholicism, a fear increased by the supposed
influence of Queen Henrietta Maria, a practising Catholic herself.
Opponents of these changes argued that as head of the Church of England and defender
of the faith, Charles was supposed to uphold the established religion. For Charles, being
head of the Church meant he could impose whatever religious policies he wanted.
The resistance to Laud’s policies started in Scotland, with the imposition of a new
prayer book in 1637. The resulting Bishops Wars of 1638 to 1640 between the King and
Scottish Presbyterians, a branch of protestantism, foreshadowed the conflict to come and depleted
an already low treasury. Normally the king would now ask Parliament to raise taxes but
unwilling to call this body Charles turned to other, increasingly unpopular methods to
raise money.
In 1634 Charles had imposed a tax known as ship money on coastal communities, something
which had traditionally been employed to fund the navy in times of national emergency.
Charles now decided to extend this tax across the country. In 1636, the pamphleteer and lawyer
William Prynne argued that this was illegal because it had not been agreed by Parliament.
John Hampden, a landowner and politician from Buckinghamshire, resisted paying the tax in
full on the grounds it was illegal and was taken to court in 1637. While the judges voted
7 to 5 in the King’s favour Charles’ authority had been challenged. Others followed Hampden’s
example and soon tax avoidance became endemic.
By 1640 Charles had run out of money and was forced to call a Parliament in April to raise
a new tax to support the war in Scotland. However, after 11 years of being ignored MPs
were unwilling to approve his demands. Charles dismissed this Parliament after only three weeks.
However, after a military defeat he was compelled to summon a second Parliament in November.
This became known as the Long Parliament, sitting until 1653.
The Long Parliament refused to provide the King with money. In August 1641 they outlawed
ship money, and in November they presented the King with the Grand Remonstrance, a long
list of complaints about the years of Personal Rule.
Importantly, they did not challenge Charles directly but instead blamed his ‘malignant’
advisers and ‘evil counsellors’. Charles responded by calling the Remonstrance ‘unparliamentary’
and rejected its claims. Relations between King and Parliament were at breaking point.
To make matters worse, rebellion broke out in Ireland. English and Scottish protestant
settlers were massacred and rumours abounded that this was the start of a Catholic plot,
supposedly supported by the king himself.
Not only did the rising add to the Charles’ financial problems but Parliament and the
king also clashed over who should command the army to be sent to Ireland.
Charles left London in January 1642 after an unsuccessful attempt to arrest five ringleaders
of the opposition in Parliament on charges of treason. He would not return until 1649,
when he re-entered his capital as a prisoner.
In summer 1642 Parliament declared it was:
‘Resolved upon the question, that an army shall be forthwith raised for the safety of
the King’s person, defence of both Houses of Parliament, … and preserving of the true
religion, the laws, liberty and peace of the Kingdom.’
The Civil War had begun.